Wife Swap

When I think of one show that I watched the most in college, it has to be Wife Swap. And no, I'm not one bit ashamed of that. I would literally sit for hours with my friend Ehren judging the crap out of the families each episode. You're probably wondering what warrants this bit of confession time. Well, I have a lot of reading to get done by 9am and I'm looking for anything to distract me. Fortunately, I can always count on Lifetime to have at least one episode of hilarious family swapping for me to enjoy.

The only requirement for watching Wife Swap is that you have to choose which family you would rather be raised by. Generally, I choose the more strict family and tonight is no different. I choose the Dragos who are workaholics void of much affection over the Camerons whose mother is consumed by her doll collection and shopping while leaving her kids to do whatever they want.

Good thing there is only one episode on tonight so I can get to that reading...

Thanksgiving/Black Friday

Yep, its my second favorite time of the year.

It all Wednesday night. We make the stuffing and pumpkin cheesecake while drinking wine.

Thanksgiving day at the Brinck household is quite the tradition. First, you have to know that we aren't exactly a formal family. Basically, if you shower on Thanksgiving you have gone above and beyond all expectations.

I got to Larry and Suze's around 10am for some delicious Monkey Bread (cinnamon sugar biscuits). Now, nap time. Things pick back up around noon when its time to prepare the Turkey for the oven. In the past few years I've taken on a more prominent role in the kitchen, AKA I make pretty much everything. We don't do anything special with the bird. Just cover it in butter, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, and rosemary. Put all the chopped veggies (onions, celery, and carrots) in the pan the pop er in the oven. This is also the time we start the stock for the giblet gravy.

Now we nap and watch some football.

We start up again around 4:30 prepping everything else for the sides. Kaluha yams, mashed potatoes, bacon and shallot green beans, and rolls.

Dinner is at 6 and we feast!

The only problem is that I've been snacking so much on everything I've been eating that I can only eat one full plate of food.

Nap. Clean. Dessert.

Bed.

Black Friday.

We are sometimes the crazy get in line at 3am people but this year no one wanted a door buster so Suze and I went to the mall around 10:30 for a day of shopping. This basically turned into me picking out everything I want for Christmas and having Suze buy it. Perfect.

Practice Thanksgiving

Since as long as I can remember my family has always had a practice Thanksgiving. It generally happens sometime in October and its our chance to try out new recipes so that we don't bomb on real Thanksgiving. This tradition really took off while I was in college because Suze knows that Thanksgiving is my favorite. Every time I came home we had a practice Thanksgiving! I had at least 3 Thanksgivings each year!

Clearly I would brag to my friends about how many Thanksgivings I would have each year and I was shocked to find out that my family is in the minority with practice Thanksgiving. Most of my friends had NEVER heard of a practice Thanksgiving?! What? I always thought this was the norm.

So for all of you reading, I hope that you would adopt the practice Thanksgiving tradition. It just might change your life..

Deadlines

Well, in my recent year of maturation, I can say with all confidence that deadlines will continue to be the death of me. Take for instance the book that is currently sitting closed next to my computer. I need to have read over half of it and be ready to talk about it with my mentor at 9am tomorrow. For some reason I still feel like I've got plenty of time and that The Sandlot is more deserving of my attention.

To top it off, I got my pre assignments for Area Director school which are all due while I'm in Europe. This means I will need to have them all done before I leave! This will be the first time in my life that I turn in an assignment more than a few hours before the deadline. But, if I'm being honest with myself I'll be just as stressed trying to finish them before I leave for my vacation as I would be trying to get them in on time.

Hopefully one day I will be friends with deadlines but at this point we're still just roomies who aren't friends but have no choice but to live with each other.

Church

The last few weeks I've been "Church Shopping" here in Parker. I'm pretty sure I know where I'll end up but want to make sure I check out a few before settling in. In my shopping, I've found a few things about suburban churches that are hilarious.

The one loud singer in the congregation.

The middle school girls who talk the whole time and no one thinks its OK to say something

The pew blocker (yep, that's me): someone who sits on the end of an empty pew

The overenthusiastic worship leader/ tired congregation combo

Kids Church! Mostly just because kids are hilarious

Clapping. Its never on beat and there are only 1/4 of the people participating. Tops.

Community Realitiess

I've been working in Parker for a little over a year now and have yet to find a community here.

I have tons of great friends in Denver and a few scattered around the metro but really no one in Parker. Now, I haven't been the most proactive about creating a community here but everyone I've run into that is close to my age isn't in the same life stage as me. I'm literally the only single person living in Parker who is out of college.

Having come to this realization, I look forward to the nights I get to escape to Denver to hang out with friends there, specifically Thursday Happy Hour on weeks I don't have Wyldlife campaigners. Tonight my mind was blown and another reality came to light... Most of my HH friends are either married or dating. Ugh!

For all those marrieds out there, I have nothing against you. I love my married friends but I don't desire to try and build relationships with couples. Its just...awkward. I will gladly be friends with people who then date and get married but until I am part of a couple I won't pursue couple friends.

Now, if that isn't enough, two weeks ago I was hanging out with a few of my other married guy friends (including my old YL leader) and they were heckling me about being single. Jerks. They came to the conclusion that the next logical step in my life is online dating and they were convinced that I would give up the control of that page.

Has my life really come to the point where my only option is online dating and that its so bad I shouldn't have control of that page.

I love the people I hang out with but if I am going to avoid putting all my chickens in the online dating basket I'm going to need to find new single friends. And more for my own sanity I need some single guy friends to hang out with me.

Snow Day!!

Today was a snow day which allowed me to indulge, so to speak.

My new favorite guilty pleasure has been listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I have been known in the past to be adamant about the "Christmas music has no place until after Thanksgiving" rule. Well, it is something about snow and coffee that, in my mind, are apparently linked with Christmas music. I know that drinking coffee while its snowing is a beautiful thing and no one can change that but add Christmas music into the mix and you have a whole new world!!

In addition to the coffee/snow/Christmas music combo I got to take Bonnie on a long walk and she LOVES snow. I rounded out the morning afternoon with some Call of Duty and emails before heading to my parents to shovel their walk in exchange for a good Suze dinner.

Can snow days happen more often? Please?

Halloween Weekend

Not surprisingly, every time I came home this weekend it was far too late and I was far too tired to try and throw together a post.

We all know that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love being creative with my costume and dressing up in general. The only problem was that this year I had literally no idea what I wanted to be. I've never really been one to work/plan ahead but I was even cutting it close for my standards. It was Halloween day and I was stuck. I did my normal round of Goodwill/Wal-Mart/Spirit to look for some inspiration but nothing was working for me. Naturally, I headed home and took a nap. I woke up an hour later and it hit me.

Gingerbread man!

It now became a race against the clock to gather the materials and create the costume. By the time I got home, I had just over 3 hours to make it and let it dry before I would be out the door to the Cooke St. girls party (super fun, btw).

I enlisted Suze's help and got it done.

The only thing left to do was the makeup. I painted my face gingerbread (brown) with a white icing smile and eyes. I walked downstairs with makeup but without the costume and Suze's response was "You look like aunt Jemima." Hilar. Love that woman.

My phone isn't working or I would post a photo.